Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Bonsai Tree of Life

Wikipedia explains bonsai, in part, to be for "The purposes of ... contemplation (for the viewer) and the pleasant exercise of effort and ingenuity (for the grower)."

I don't claim to be a bonsai expert -- far from it -- but elements of bonsai seem to fit in well with my initial response to the color palette of "spa," a relaxing place for renewal and/or health.

In keeping with my self-imposed challenge to base my Colorplay pieces on traditional quilt blocks or patterns, this one was inspired by the Tree of Life, or Tree of Paradise block. The quilting is meant to look a bit like the raked gravel in a zen garden. The background fabric may be more chinese than japanese, but I did buy it from a japanese lady at an ugly fabric fund raising auction, so that's got to account for something! It took several iterations to get the right arrangement and scale of the half square triangles looking like a miniature tree, but I guess that was "the pleasant exercise of effort and ingenuity" for which bonsai is intended.

12
comments:

When I clicked on the blog and this popped up, I smiled. Very whimsical and full of movement even though you have used the constraints of a traditional piecing. I just love the brown background - it adds so much interest to what could have been very static.

As always, I like the way you've incorporated traditional elements to create something very nontraditional. The colors are so soothing and your use of values creates a beautiful glow. And you used the print of that background fabric really well.

I made a piece with similar colors, titled Grief, and found photographing it difficult. The more muted tones van be challenging. Did the saying about Bonsai also relate to making the piece? That great, gnarled trunk looks like it would be difficult to attach.

Well, that brown fabric is incredible--hard to believe it was in an ugly fabric sale! I love the little almost off-balance balancing act the triangles do--very bonsai-ish and the blue and green you chose are wonderfully crisp and clean. The feeling is spa.

Colorplay Book

About Twelve by Twelve

We are twelve quilt artists who embarked on an art challenge together. We're from different places throughout the world and our artistic styles vary, but we share a love of art quilting and a desire to play, experiment, learn, and grow.

For four years (2007-2011), we each made a 12x12 inch quilted art piece on a designated theme or palette. See our Theme Series and our Colorplay series.

For the 2012 Series, we changed things a bit and made rectangular pieces, 20x12 inches with roughly 10 weeks between each challenge. As before, we had a designated theme for each challenge.

We shared our process, progress, and results on this blog. It remains a key record of our rich collaboration.